Oaklanders furious over unexpected jumps in garbage collection costs

Photo: Michael Short / Photos By Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle

Jennifer Dotta works at Luka’s Taproom & Lounge, which has stopped composting because of the fee hike.

Jennifer Dotta works at Luka’s Taproom & Lounge, which has...

When Oakland City Council members approved a contract with a garbage hauler last year to reduce landfill waste by ambitiously composting and recycling, they celebrated it as a major environmental achievement. Now, it’s clear they didn’t read the fine print.

The first bills reflecting the contract arrived this month in homes and businesses across the city, and no one, it seems, was prepared for the new fees.

Stuart Proffitt’s monthly bill for a 10-unit apartment building in the Temescal neighborhood jumped from $300 to $1,300.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle

A can full of waste that would normally be composted is instead headed for the regular trash at Luka’s Taproom.

A can full of waste that would normally be composted is instead...

Gail Lillian’s bill, for her Liba Falafel restaurant in the city’s uptown district, shot up from $345 to $625.

Carmen Madden’s went from $757 to $1,360 for her 30-unit apartment building in East Oakland.

People are furious, and their anger is spilling into City Hall.

“A 300 percent increase is improper. ... Who was representing anyone’s interest?” Proffitt demanded in a letter to council members, in which he described the rate hikes as “obvious mistakes.”

But they weren’t mistakes. The rate increases were in the contract — the council simply didn’t spot them.

The council awarded the 10-year garbage contract last year after a long and acrimonious battle over which company should be given the $1 billion job to pick up trash, compost and recycling in Oakland. In the end, the City Council picked Waste Management — which has hauled Oakland’s trash for decades — to handle the garbage and compost, while California Waste Solutions was entrusted with picking up residential recyclables.

Waste Management officials say there were no secrets about what was in the contract — and that it was all laid out for city officials before they signed on.

Photo: Paul Chinn / Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Gail Lillian says the garbage bill at her Liba Falafel restaurant in Oakland’s uptown district shot up from $345 to $625.

Gail Lillian says the garbage bill at her Liba Falafel restaurant...

Council members surprised

But at a special hearing at City Hall on Monday prompted by complaints about the bills from around the city, council members insisted they had no idea this was what they’d agreed to.

“If some alien came from another planet, they’d think, ‘What the heck’s going on here?’” said Councilman Dan Kalb. “And that’s what I’m thinking: What the heck’s going on here?”

When Kalb and his colleagues voted to approve the garbage contract in September, they were reassured by city staffers that they were signing on to a great deal.

“We have a high degree of confidence that services can and will be delivered on July 1, 2015, at the lowest possible cost,” then-interim City Administrator Henry Gardner told the council at the September meeting.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle

Chef Wilson Mendez (left) watches as dishwasher Max Rodas (right) and another worker take out the garbage at Luka’s Taproom, where the owner says the monthly trash bill soared from $1,350 to $2,250.

Chef Wilson Mendez (left) watches as dishwasher Max Rodas (right)...

The council was also given a lengthy information packet that laid out the entire contract. It ran about 300 pages. At the end were rate tables that included the new “ancillary” fees that are now infuriating Oaklanders — among them a $931 charge to push a large dumpster 100 feet to a curb, and a $762 fee to collect a 96-gallon compost bin from a restaurant five times a week.

The fees also showed that the cost of collecting compost would be higher than the cost of picking up garbage. Gardner made no mention of the new fees in his presentation.

In addition, the council received a six-page supplemental staff report from the Public Works Department, summarizing the contract. It said garbage fees would go up 24 percent for single-family homes, 30 percent for apartment buildings, and 40 percent for restaurants and other businesses. It made no mention of the new fees.

Kalb said he had perused the information packet, but based his vote mostly on the staff report.

Photo: Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle

Chef Wilson Mendez, right, and dishwasher Max Rodas throw bags of trash into a single landfill dumpster in the back of Luka's Taproom in Oakland, CA Friday, July 24 2015.
Because of a significant rate increase for collection in Oakland, Luka's Taproom has decided to stop composting their food waste and instead put all their trash into a landfill dumpster.

Chef Wilson Mendez, right, and dishwasher Max Rodas throw bags of...

‘Buck stops with’ council

“I accept my share of the responsibility,” Kalb said. “I’m the first to acknowledge that even if (city) staff didn’t present all the information up front, the responsibility is still on the council — the buck stops with us.”

The terms of the contract were negotiated by the city’s Public Works Department with help from hired consultants.

Photo: Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle

Server Carmen Anderson scrapes leftover food into a trash in the kitchen at Luka's Taproom in Oakland, CA Friday, July 24 2015.
Because of a significant rate increase for collection in Oakland, Luka's Taproom has decided to stop composting their food waste and instead put all their trash into a landfill dumpster.

Server Carmen Anderson scrapes leftover food into a trash in the...

Gardner acknowledged that he never brought up the new fees in his presentation to the council, and said council members focused on how the contract would affect single-family homes and smaller apartment buildings, but never raised concerns about restaurants or bigger businesses.

If council members (now) say, ‘I don’t remember that,’ they probably don’t,” Gardner said. “Because there wasn’t any discussion.”

Former Mayor Jean Quan blamed the increased costs on requirements the council members set for the contract, including a youth jobs program, mandatory green bins for every household and a call center.

“The council made some very complicated decisions, all of which added to the cost,” Quan said, adding that it’s disingenuous for council members to now say they lacked information. “I suspect the push fees were there all along.”

Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said the council felt pressured to take action on the contract.

“Yes, I should have checked their math,” Kaplan said of the staff report. “But I shouldn’t have to check their math.”

Business owners stunned

If the council was surprised, business owners were stunned. The spike has Proffitt, the Temescal neighborhood landlord, wondering whether he’ll have to defer maintenance or raise rents for the medical students and senior citizens who live in his building.

Maria Alderete, co-owner of Luka’s Taproom & Lounge restaurant on Broadway, says the rates for her compost collection are now higher than for trash collection. Her monthly bill soared from $1,350 to $2,250, largely due to a $700 monthly compost cost increase.

As a result, Alderete has stopped composting.

Photo: Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle

Chef Wilson Mendez, right, and dishwasher Max Rodas throw bags of trash into a single landfill dumpster in the back of Luka's Taproom in Oakland, CA Friday, July 24 2015.
Because of a significant rate increase for collection in Oakland, Luka's Taproom has decided to stop composting their food waste and instead put all their trash into a landfill dumpster.

Chef Wilson Mendez, right, and dishwasher Max Rodas throw bags of...

Mayor’s pledge

Mayor Libby Schaaf, who voted to approve the contract as a council member last year, said in a statement: “We have heard our business community’s concerns about the rates loud and clear.” She promised to work with Waste Management to “find a thoughtful resolution.”

It’s unclear whether Oaklanders will feel relief from the added costs any time soon.

At Monday’s hearing, an attempt to temporarily lower the bills went nowhere. Councilwoman Annie Campbell-Washington, who took office after the garbage contract was approved, asked how it “could be so different from what the council understood.”